Anaconda grew practically overnight. Platted in June 1883, Anaconda already boasted eighty buildings by December 1884, including a wood-frame clothing store on this corner, built by pioneering Jewish merchant Wolfe (William) Copinus. In 1888, Copinus hired architect D. F. McDevitt to design this two-story, brick business block. The building’s recessed entrance, second-story rough-cut stone lintels, decorative molded window hoods, and corbeled (stepped) brick cornice reflect the era’s design aesthetic, which called for creating interest through texture and angles. Named the Ida Block after Copinus’s daughter, it originally housed a corner drugstore and an office and clothing store on Commercial Avenue. By 1896, a saloon had replaced the drug store, and for most of the twentieth century, the Ida housed a saloon or other business for male entertainment. In a brief exception, it was home to the Collier Preparatory and Commercial School, which offered classes—including drafting and blueprint reading—from 1912 to 1916. Women’s suffrage advocates met upstairs in 1913. Despite their efforts, Deer Lodge County rejected women’s suffrage by 59 to 41 percent, even as the amendment passed statewide.
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